BASEBALL: LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES; A Complacent Attitude Is Not in Braves' Plans

The usual guideline for a team that has grown accustomed to winning all the time is to act in tune with having been there before. The usual danger for such a team is becoming blase about its achievements.

More than any other team in the major leagues, the Atlanta Braves have become accustomed to success. Game 1 of the National League Championship Series at Turner Field Wednesday night will mark the seventh consecutive time that Atlanta will be in the championship series. This time, the Braves will be going up against a team -- the San Diego Padres -- that hasn't been this far since 1984.

But the Braves don't appear to be taking the ho-hum approach.

When they dispatched the Chicago Cubs in three straight games in the first part of the playoffs last week, they celebrated with a considerable amount of giddiness, even if the sweep was hardly a surprise. Today, some of the veteran Braves credited the impact of new players like Andres Galarraga and Walt Weiss for helping make the team feel a little hungrier, a little more determined and a little more appreciative of its good fortune as it attempts to make it to the World Series, where the Braves were turned back by the Yankees in 1996.

''We all get a little spoiled sometimes,'' said Chipper Jones, who has played in the N.L.C.S. every season since he became a regular in 1995.

Galarraga, the slick-fielding firstbaseman who has given the Braves a right-handed force in the middle of the lineup this season, has never been to a World Series. Weiss, a steady shortstop and leadoff hitter who was selected to his first All-Star team this season, has not been to the World Series since 1990, when he played with Oakland. Neither is trying to play down his excitement.

''There's enough new guys over here that we were really excited about winning a division and winning the division series,'' Weiss said. ''And it was kind of contagious. From what I've heard, it wasn't that big a deal in the past.''

The way many of the Braves sounded today, on the eve of their four-of-seven-game series with the underdog Padres with rain in the forecast for Wednesday night, a hungrier attitude was just what they needed after being upset by the Florida Marlins, 4 games to 2, in the N.L.C.S. a year ago. And that was something Javy Lopez alluded to when he said that Weiss and Galarraga have a different attitude than former Braves like Kenny Lofton and Fred McGriff.

''We have a different perspective anyway with the guys we've added,'' said John Smoltz, who will start Game 1 for Atlanta against the San Diego right-hander Andy Ashby. ''They're not taking anything for granted.''

Here in Atlanta, however, it is easy to see why people might take a lot for granted. Since 1991, the Braves have 757 regular-season victories, 71 more than the Yankees and 116 more than the nearest N.L. team, the Houston Astros. And so, when Jones said, ''we'', he was also speaking of the hometown fans, who have witnessed the Braves win seven division titles in a row -- excluding the 1994 strike-shortened season.

Smoltz said, ''Nothing short of winning the World Series will be acceptable here,'' adding that it is a little unfair.

''Since 1991, we've played five different teams in the N.L.C.S,'' said the 31-year-old right-hander, who went 17-3 this year after undergoing off-season elbow surgery. ''It's easy to say that we only have won one world championship. But credit needs to be given.''

Smoltz, who is 11-3 with a 2.29 career post-season earned run average, was speaking from the perspective of having pitched for a team that had lost 106 games in 1988 and 97 games in both 1989 and 1990.

''Glavine and I have been humiliated and laughed at,'' Smoltz said, referring to Tom Glavine, Atlanta's Game 2 starter, who was also there in the dreary years. ''That's why this means so much to us. When this run is over, they're going to appreciate it so much more than they do now. It's going to be like: 'Remember the 90's? Man, that was great.' ''

That's why the Braves sounded a little miffed when they were subjected to ''Let's go, Cubs!'' chants in their own ball park during the first roiund. They heard the same sort of chants for the Yankees in the 1996 World Series. When asked today if he would ever expect to hear ''Let's go, Braves!'' at Yankee Stadium, Jones quickly answered no.

''Not unless they're on a suicide mission,'' Jones said.

The Braves have a much different mission this week: to get back to the World Series, to win another one, and to once and for all quiet the critics, many of whom come from their own hometown. But regardless of what happens with the Padres, Smoltz figures his team deserves a little more respect.

''We won our seventh division title this season,'' Smoltz said. ''I just can't see that ever being done again.''

INSIDE PITCH

Even though ANDY ASHBY has won just once since Aug. 12, when he outpitched GREG MADDUX to become the first N.L. pitcher to win 16 games, San Diego Manager BRUCE BOCHY selected Ashby to pitch Game 1. KEVIN BROWN will pitch Game 2. . . . JIM LEYRITZ, who homered in each of the final three games of the Padres' division series victory over the Astros, will not be in the starting lineup for Wednesay's Game 1 because WALLY JOYNER's sore left shoulder ''feels much better than it has in a long time,'' Joyner said after undergoing numerous sessions with a chiropractor. Joyner had a two-run home run in San Diego's series-clinching 6-1 victory over the Astros on Sunday.